An appealing and absorbing tale of a young sleuth.
A daring, inquisitive girl tries to save her school from disaster in this debut middle-grade novel.
To say that sixth-grade student Evie is curious is an understatement. A foster child, she mostly keeps to herself, becoming engrossed in novels and embarking in her head on the escapades they describe. She even has a secret space on the second floor of Ferngarden School, and it’s in this hideaway that she snoops and eavesdrops on her teachers. Evie is tortured by neighborhood bully Tar Greeley, and when he calls her an alien and implies that she comes from outer space, she sets out on a journey to figure out who her birth parents are. When she tries to find her birth certificate, she is rebuffed because she is too young to access the records, and she returns to everyday life, looking forward to the beginning of the school year. But just before the first day of school, the teachers find a strange infestation of copperhead snakes and Ferngarden is deemed unfit to open. Soon, the town finds out that if Ferngarden doesn’t open on schedule, it is immediately returned to the estate of the original owner, whose sole heir is Tar’s father. Evie and her friend Danny are sure that the Greeleys have something to do with the snakes, but can they prove it? Evie returns to eavesdropping, and the fate of the school (and her own destiny) falls into her hands. Evie’s emotional and intellectual maturity is about on par with that of an actual middle schooler (which is a good thing). Wickham’s characterization of Evie makes her a worthy role model and, hopefully, readers around the same age will see her that way. While the story is fun and engaging (if a bit obvious), the pacing is off, as the whole tale wraps up in the final 15 or so pages. A more gradual road to the book’s climax would have served it better—though it’s entertaining, one gets the sense of “Oh, that’s all?” Wickham would do well to create a series of Evie adventures—with her infinite curiosity, she’s a remarkable heroine.
An appealing and absorbing tale of a young sleuth.Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9981619-0-7
Page Count: -
Publisher: Finisterre Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 27, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
In her first children's book, Parton (the country music star) turns one of her songs into a saccharine tale about a girl who is so poor that her mama has to sew her a patchwork coat when the weather turns cold. (Joseph and his coat of many colors are mentioned but never explained.) Despite the girl's love for her coat, she is teased in school, which she counters by trying to explain to her classmates ``that one is only poor/if they choose to be.'' The logic here is as flawed as the grammar, and Sutton's illustrations, while competent, show a well-dressed, happy rural family who look anything but poor. The text is both clumsy and irrelevent (it ends with ``Through life I've remained happy/and good luck is on my side./I have everything that anyone/could ever want from life.'') An apparently autobiographical song that has a hard time standing on its own as a compelling children's story. (Picture book. All ages)
Pub Date: Sept. 30, 1994
ISBN: 0-06-023413-X
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
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Broccoli: No way is James going to eat broccoli. “It’s disgusting,” says James. Well then, James, says his father, let’s consider the alternatives: some wormy dirt, perhaps, some stinky socks, some pre-chewed gum? James reconsiders the broccoli, but—milk? “Blech,” says James. Right, says his father, who needs strong bones? You’ll be great at hide-and-seek, though not so great at baseball and kickball and even tickling the dog’s belly. James takes a mouthful. So it goes through lumpy oatmeal, mushroom lasagna and slimy eggs, with James’ father parrying his son’s every picky thrust. And it is fun, because the father’s retorts are so outlandish: the lasagna-making troll in the basement who will be sent back to the rat circus, there to endure the rodent’s vicious bites; the uneaten oatmeal that will grow and grow and probably devour the dog that the boy won’t be able to tickle any longer since his bones are so rubbery. Schneider’s watercolors catch the mood of gentle ribbing, the looks of bewilderment and surrender and the deadpanned malarkey. It all makes James’ father’s last urging—“I was just going to say that you might like them if you tried them”—wholly fresh and unexpected advice. (Early reader. 5-9)
Pub Date: May 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-547-14956-1
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Clarion Books
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2011
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